Thousands of people on parole from state prison cycle through Rikers each year, interrupting the ties to jobs, family and community that are essential to their ultimate success. This penalty is often disproportionate for minor violations. Unlike in most other states, the number of people on parole in New York who are in jail on technical violations is growing. In New York City alone, this population hasrisen by 15 percent over the past four years and accounts for approximately 8 percent of the people on Rikers.

There is a better way. Changes to state laws can reduce the number of people in jail and prison for technical violations, leading to better outcomes for those on parole. Those changes could also accelerate the timeline for shuttering the troubled jails on Rikers, as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed.

In New York, people on parole are released from state prison under various conditions. When a parole officer believes that a person on parole has failed to comply with one of these conditions – known as a technical violation – the officer can have him or her remanded to a local jail pending a revocation hearing to determine whether to send him or her back to state prison.

This process takes nearly two months on average, which the person on parole spends in a local jail like Rikers. One-third of these people are released back into the community at the end of this process. The rest go back to state prison.

Sending people to jail or prison for technical violations has little to do with public safety, particularly because the violations themselves do not involve violence or criminal offenses. It also imposes significant costs on taxpayers: $270,000 per year for each bed on Rikers Island.

We should invest this money in community services and housing to help people on parole succeed, rather than incarcerate them.

First, New York should ensure that only paroled people who pose a risk to public safety or of fleeing are jailed while they await the determination whether they will be sent back to state prison. If they do not pose a risk to public safety or of fleeing, they should not be jailed while waiting. Instead, there should be a hearing before an administrative law judge to determine whether interim detention in a local jail like Rikers is warranted during this period.

Second, New York should pass legislation shortening parole terms. We should also permit people on parole to earn credit for good behavior, allowing them to exit parole sooner. These reforms would reduce the number of people who are subject to the tripwires of parole supervision. They would also allow the state to focus its parole resources on the first few years after release, when the paroled person’s need for assistance and risk of reoffending are highest.

Third, there should be a graduated set of responses, so that minor violations do not result in jail stays or prison terms. To the extent that technical violations do result in prison terms, those terms should be capped at defined periods for each successive violation.

Fourth, we should make sure that intrusive conditions of parole are carefully crafted and imposed only when necessary.

Beyond these changes to increase the fairness of the system, there is another fix that could shorten the timeline for closing Rikers. Under the current system, approximately 600 people with technical violations are held at Rikers while they await the determination whether they will be sent back to state prison. If this population could be decreased, then the state could move these people to state correctional institutions with excess bed space located in New York City, such as the Queensboro and Lincoln state correctional facilities.

is of counsel at Latham & Watkins LLP and a former chief judge of the state Court of Appeals and the current chairman of the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform.

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As founder and research director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, E.J. McMahon is a go-to expert on budget plans and policy proposals. His organization promotes greater transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility in state government, which often puts him at odds with lawmakers and the governor. McMahon previously worked as a journalist in Albany, as an Assembly Republican staffer and a budget adviser for almost 30 years, giving him great insight into the goings-on in the Capitol.